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Delinking Economic Growth from Environmental Degradation? A Literature Survey on the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis

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Author Info
Sigrid Stagl () (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics & B.A.)
Abstract

The effect of economic growth on environmental quality is much under dispute. A number of empirical studies have made the claim that there exist in some income ranges a positive relation between per capita income and some measure of environmental quality. According to this inverted U-shaped pattern of different pollutants relative to per capita incomes in different countries which is also called the ”Environmental Kuznets Curve” (EKC), environmental pressure increases up to a point as income goes up; after the turning point environmental quality improves as income keeps rising. Possible explanations for this pattern are seen in the progression of economic development, from clean agrarian economies to polluting industrial economies to clean service economies. This trend is enhanced through the transfer of cleaner technology from high-income countries to low-income countries and the tendency of people with higher income having a higher preference for environmental quality. Since this relationship is so fundamental to questions of economic development and sustainability it has provoked a vast load of research over the last seven years supporting but also heavily criticizing the results and conclusions. This paper gives an overview of the literature published on this topic to date and the conceptual, methodological and fundamental critique put forward.

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Paper provided by Vienna University of Economics and B.A. Research Group: Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness in its series Working Papers with number geewp06.

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Date of creation: Sep 1999
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Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwgee:geewp06

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Keywords: economic growth; environmental protection; Environmental Kuznets Curve;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  7. Selden Thomas M. & Song Daqing, 1994. "Environmental Quality and Development: Is There a Kuznets Curve for Air Pollution Emissions?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 147-162, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Kahn, Matthew E., 1998. "A household level environmental Kuznets curve," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 269-273, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. repec:ilo:ilaoep:238 is not listed on IDEAS
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  24. Beghin, John & Potier, Michel, 1999. "Effects of Trade Liberalisation on the Environment in the Manufacturing Sector," Staff General Research Papers 1484, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
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  25. Roger Perman & David I. Stern, 1999. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: Implications of Non-Stationarity," Working Papers in Ecological Economics 9901, Australian National University, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Ecological Economics Program. [Downloadable!]
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    Other versions:
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Marzio Galeotti, 2003. "Economic Development and Environmental Protection," Working Papers 2003.89, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei. [Downloadable!]
  2. Jha, Raghbendra & Bhanu Murthy, KV, 2001. "An Inverse Global Environmental Kuznets Curve," Departmental Working Papers 2001-02, Australian National University, Economics RSPAS. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Marzio Galeotti & Matteo Manera & Alessandro Lanza, 2006. "On the Robustness of Robustness Checks of the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Working Papers 2006.22, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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